Terrorist threat stays

First of all we wish to commend President Macapagal-Arroyo and the security forces for having thwarted a terrorist plot to bomb trains and malls around Metro Manila. If the terrorists had succeeded, we would have had something equal to the recent Madrid attack that killed 191 innocent civilians. Thanks to our intelligence forces, they were able to capture four members of the Abu Sayyaf group before they were able to plan their bombs.

The best defense has always been a good offense and when coping with terrorists, this means identifying who they are and beating them to the punch. The same security forces have also told the public that the terrorists’ threat is far from over. There is much more to be done.

After World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defined the four basic human freedoms and the very first was freedom from fear. Yet as early as June 1986, the United States Department of State Gist said, "International terrorism is a serious and growing threat to the United States and the world. It is becoming increasingly frequent, indiscriminate and state-supported. The United States is a prime target because we have an extensive official and commercial presence overseas: our policies, values and culture are directly opposed by many terrorist groups: and moderate pro-western governments we support are often those which terrorists are trying to destabilize.

"From 1975 through 1985, more than 6200 terrorist incidents were recorded world-wide leaving roughly 4700 people dead and more than 9000 wounded. During 1985, the U.S. government counted 812 international terrorist incidents, up more than 30 percent from the 1984 level and 55 percent higher than the average for the previous five years. Of terrorist incidents in 1985, some 45 percent occurred in the Middle East, an additional 25 percent in Europe, with about 15 percent in other regions.

Total 1985 casualties were recorded, with France sustaining the most, 47.

The past year also has seen a dramatic rise in state-supported terrorism "terrorists are increasingly willing to use more violent methods."

Since then, the worst terroristic act was the bombing of New York. That was worse than Pearl Harbor because in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese hit military targets. Now, strictly speaking, international law does not list terrorism as a crime. There are many international conventions but they have yet to agree on a definition of terrorism.

We have lived through the Japanese occupation and the Second World War but world terrorism is a new phenomenon. I believe that this is the first time that terrorists have infiltrated the whole globe. Sometime ago, several European countries warned their citizens about their safety if they traveled to the Philippines. And where did the terrorists strike? Spain! Even Bali has not been spared.

The only solution to the terrorist problem is education. With due apologies to President Roosevelt, we don‚t believe that the first freedom is freedom from fear. The first freedom is freedom from ignorance. That is the true foundation of all other freedoms.